A group of 50 Greenwich beauty school students have been left devastated after Greenwich Community College announced their NVQ course will no longer be funded.

The girls of the Terri Brooke College of Beauty and Nails have all completed their NVQ level 2 achieving scores between 97 and 99 percent.

But qualification provider Greenwich Community College claims to have advised the high-achieving students they will not be funding adult learners.

Terri Stainer, 54, manager of the six-year-old college and a salon on Archery Road, Eltham said her students are up in arms at facing potential unemployment due to not being able to complete their qualification.

She said: “It made me cry hearing the news. I was devastated. They can’t just stop all the adult learners’ funding like that.

“We’re only a small college but we’re the heart of the community. We’re a drop in centre where everyone comes in, not just for treatments but also to give us fundraising ideas. We do so much to help the community and we’ve even given customers their bus fare home,” she said.

Mrs Stainer, of Penn Lane Bexley, also said the tutors and students have all signed a petition they plan to deliver to the Secretary of Education.

Greenwich Community College have said that in line with the Government's budget deficit plan, the Skills Funding Agency has significantly reduced its 2014/15 adult funding grant to college by 22 percent.

Greenwich Community College principal Gary Chin, said: "We are committed to meeting the needs of our students and providing them with the relevant skills to progress into employment or onto university and we will continue to explore ways in how we can meet the needs of these students."

A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said: "If the awarding organisation can provide sufficiant evidence of an increasing demand for these qualifications then the agency will add the qualifications back into the offer."